


The Big, Bright Sun and the Pearl

by antioedipus



Category: Naruto
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-05-18
Updated: 2020-05-18
Packaged: 2021-03-03 04:48:44
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,680
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24259162
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/antioedipus/pseuds/antioedipus
Summary: "What do you think my love looks like?"
Relationships: Haruno Sakura/Uzumaki Naruto
Comments: 8
Kudos: 42





	The Big, Bright Sun and the Pearl

Sitting on her bedroom floor, Sakura tries to organize all the books and notes fanned out around her. Naruto sits beside her, and is busy reading some of her old notes from the ninja academy. He has always had a hard time paying attention, so it makes sense that he needs to look over them again.

She can’t quite place when she first started liking Naruto. She supposed it would have to be around the time he started walking her home. Her embarrassing and longstanding crush on Sasuke, which in hindsight, was ridiculous in both its certainty and longevity, makes it hard to recollect when her attention turned towards Naruto. It was around the time that she realized that Sasuke was always looking at Hinata. Eventually, Sakura realized the Naruto couldn’t stop looking at her.

She was the first one to ask him on a date. He would linger after their walks, and she realized that she would have to bite the bullet if she wanted to be with him. She had asked him to come with her for some ramen, which he both gleefully accepted and paid for.

Now, months later, she has no idea where she would rather be than with him. She looks at him, sitting in her yellow room on her area rug with a tiger looking at the moon, surrounded by navy blue. He is trying to concentrate on her notes and not talk. His mind is always moving in different directions, and she can see that he has something else distracting him.

She stares at her notes, and sighs. It’s really sunny, and her room is warm. Naruto looks golden. He has practically stuffed his fist into his mouth, trying not to interrupt her. She turns to look at him.

“Naruto, is there something you want to say to me?”

“Well, you see, I know you wanted me to read your notes from the academy, but then I saw your notes on foxes and tricksters and well,” he puts both arms behind his head, “I have some questions.” Sakura tilts her head. Naruto is always surprising her, but she didn’t really think he liked books.

“Is it because of the fox sealed inside of you?” as she asks the question, he nods his head.

“Well, foxes are like ravens and coyotes. In a lot of folklore, all over the world, these animals are regarded as tricksters.” She pauses, rifling through her notes.

“Tricksters?” the boy has a troubled look on his face.

“Well, the big thing to know about the literary archetype is that tricksters are witty and sly, and it allows them to tell jokes, understand riddles and move between worlds. The name isn’t a moral judgement, it’s just that they are always operating in the grey zone” Sakura gets up, and goes over to her desk, looking for a very specific story. Naruto’s eyes follow her, studying her form. She is almost as tall him, and her muscles of her shoulders and upper arms are defined. Unintentionally, his face shifts into a vulpine expression.

“What does that mean?” he curses himself for the dumb question. He wishes he sounded more sophisticated, because he just wants to sound as smart as she does. She is rifling through her papers, and for a moment, he thinks that he has been forgotten. He starts to pout, when she makes a noise.

“Here!” She holds up a piece of paper, victorious. He narrows his eyes, confused, considering that she may have lost it. He is about to ask her, until she turns around and starts talking. When she sees the fox on Naruto’s face, a quiet trill comes from the base of her sacrum and ricochets off her sternum. If she were to be honest, and she won’t be, it’s a look that ignites something primal in the her stomach. She knows it’s pretty much unconscious on his part, so she keeps her face neutral when she sees it. It helps that he can be pretty oblivious, for someone who so clever.

“Here are my notes about tricksters. As I said previously, they are usually coyotes, foxes or ravens, but there are other animals and deities. They are sly; they are usually good at solving riddles. The kind of jokes they tell reveal knowledge or a truth that none of the other players or characters can see.” She glances back down at the page.

“So, they are just really funny?” he smiles, “is that your way of telling me that I am funny?” He snickers, and Sakura smirks.

“I don’t know if it counts if you are the joke instead of the person telling the joke.” It takes him a second, but he can tell from the mischievous look on her face that he is the butt of her comment.

“You always rain on my parade, you know that, right?” the question betrays Naruto’s sensitivity, the soft spot that he usually protects with a smile or a burst of over enthusiasm.

She walks over to him, and sits down beside him. He looks glum. She puts a hand over his, smiling softly.

“I didn’t mean it like that. Sorry for taking it too far.” Alarmed, he looks to her.

“Huh? Oh, it’s a-alright! I-I r-really wasn’t offended at all.” He stammers, the way he does when he is embarrassed. Sakura frowns, because she thinks he should be comfortable being honest with her.

“Alright,” tucking a stray lock of hair behind her ear, she looks into his eyes. “Tricksters can also move between realms. Hermes, a god from Ancient Greece, was the messenger god, but he also ruled shepherds, boundaries, roads, travellers and commerce. He was able to move between worlds. He could go into the underworld, back to earth and up into the heavens.” Naruto tilts his head.

“Huh? So tricksters can move between different worlds?” Sakura nods enthusiastically.

“Yes! However, sometimes, gods would be able to give mortals the privileges to move between realms. Like the story of Orpheus and Eurydice.” She looks at him, smiling. “Orpheus and Eurydice were husband and wife. When she died, he played his lyre so beautifully that Hades, the god of the underworld, came to see him.”

“That sounds pretty fucking creepy.”

“Oh, Naruto! That’s beside the point. He was playing the lyre so that Hades, god of the underworld, would come to see him. His wife, Eurydice was dead, so he wanted to bring her back to life.” Sakura’s eyes grow a little wider, to really make her point. “So, Hades agreed to let Orpheus come into the underworld and bring her back, on the condition that he doesn’t look back at her until they are both out of the underworld.” Naruto is silent, mulling this over in his head.

“So, he went into the underworld, and found her.”

“So he succeeded!” Naruto loves a happy ending. Sakura’s mouth quirks, in a way that lets him know that it doesn’t end neatly.

“Well, he finds her, but looks back at her just before his second foot crosses over the threshold back to our world, so he fails and she returns to the underworld.” Sakura rubs her ear sheepishly, “it’s not really a story about tricksters, but it made me think of you.”

“What do I have in common with _him_? I would _never_ have looked back at you until we were both safe!” He is indignant, and curls his right fist. Now he is really looking at her, like he is staring down into the depths of her being. _Moving between realms_ , she thinks, that must what it be like, to go from looking at a person to inside of them. She bites back her response, that, besides illustrating why mortals can’t actually move between realms and the absolute mortality structuring all life, that it is about a man who would achieve the impossible to save someone he loves.

“I wouldn’t look back, you know that, right?” asking with an immense sincerity, which only he can, Sakura nods. He isn’t like other boys; he has a fox demon inside him, and surely the fox would ensure his success. He probably could go back and get her.

“I know”, she says with smile easily eclipsed by Naruto’s.

His smile beautiful. It is like beaming sunshine is pouring right from his mouth. He is handsome, in a rough and tumble, salt of the earth way. But his smile has an alchemical quality that betrays the otherworldly nature sealed inside his stomach.

Curiosity sated, Naruto goes back to looking at her notes from the academy. Sakura just looks at him, thinking about the ways he is always reassuring her, caring for her, ensuring that she knows how much he loves her (which it a lot). His love is a bright orange, like the chakra of the nine-tailed fox, an orange crush that slips into crimson oblivion.

It makes Sakura wonder what her love looks like, as she looks at him and the dumb face he makes when he is trying to focus. If she had to answer, she would think her love to be the soft, immanent gleam of a pearl.

“Naruto, what do you think my love looks like, to you?” she looks at him, watching his face switch from concentration to absolute bewilderment. She sighs.

“I don’t even know why I ask.” At that, Naruto laughs, nervous.

“I should really read some of those books of yours.” She smiles.

“Well, some poetry would be nice, but honestly, I like you how you are.” Her kiss surprises him, taking him off guard (he always cares about whether or not her mother is home, if they have some other place to be—he can’t lose himself, like she can).

And here it is, the parable of the big bright orange sun shining upon the blue sea and the small pearl, hidden and developed in the dark belly of an oyster, and, when discovered by the pearler and purloined from the sea, can now gleam because of the light of the sun.


End file.
